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Last summer Sabina Maraffi and Ásdís Ingólfsdóttir met as teacher delegates of Science on Stage Italy and Science on Stage Iceland at the European Science on Stage festival 2017 in Debrecen, Hungary. Sabina presented the project 'Who killed Maya Foster? A CLIL CrimeQuest, interactive computer class Role Playing Game'. Now she and Ásdís came up with the idea to do a teacher exchange and develop a new project together which combines the idea of Sabina to use computer games in STEM classes and to do research on geology and geography.

For developing the GeoQuest project Sabina went to see Ásdís in Iceland where she learned about the Icelandic school system, visited Ásdís school and did field trips to experience the Icelandic geology, geography and nature. Sabina also met with Haraldur Gunnarsson, a teacher and professor of Earth Sciences who is joining the project too. On site Sabina gave geology lessons with the GeoQuest project to second year students. Therefore she chose several interdisciplinary science adventures about the Vesuv for the Icelandic students, so they would not only improve their STEM skills but also gain knowledge about nature, history and culture of her own home country Italy. Furthermore, Sabina shared the game with other Icelandic teachers.

As a next step Ásdís will visit Sabina in Italy. But before she is going to develop a GeoQuest game with her students on Iceland's geology and geography for challenging the Italian students.

An award ceremony was dedicated to a successful Greek project: The student teacher project “Manufacture prototype robotic photovoltaic detector, with partial simulation of the earth movement” got awarded at the 9th Hellenic Science on Stage Fair, held from 11-12 November 2016 at Laboratory Center of Physical Sciences of Aigaleo and later on at the European Science on Stage festival 2017 in the category "Demanding and innovation experiment", among 233 entries.

The 1st Vocational Lyceum of Salamis was attended by the Deputy Minister of Education, Research & Religious Affairs Dimitris Baxevanakis accompanied by the Director of Themis Kotsifakis Office on 10 November 2017.

The event was welcomed by the head of the 1st Vocational Lyceum of Salamis, Mrs Anna Kanaki, the Mayor of Salamis, Mrs Isidora Nannou-Papathanasiou, the Director of Secondary Education of Piraeus Mr Nikolaos Moumouris, the President of the Piraeus Chamber of Crafts Mr Andrianos Michalaros.

In his greeting, the head of the Greek Steering Committee of the Science on Stage and head of the Laboratory Center of Physical Sciences of Aigaleo, Eugenia Tsitopoulou-Christodoulides presented the Science on Stage program.

In his greeting, Mr Baksevanakis congratulated the Director and the teachers of the 1st Vocational Lyceum of Salamis and especially Mr Petros Poutos and the students who distinguished themselves for their project and stressed that this success contributes decisively to the upgrading and the promotion of Vocational Education. The Deputy Minister pointed out that innovative educational actions are an important part of empowering and raising the awareness of the entire educational community, strengthening 21st century skills such as collaboration, critical thinking, creativity, communication, and enriching learning goals through cross- and interdisciplinary actions.

Finally, Mr Petros Poutos and his students presented their project to the public. Learn more.

Ciencia en Acción was held from 6-8 October 2017 in Eibar and Ermua. At this event prizes were awarded to the winners of the science education and communication program, in which 447 projects participated in its more than 20 modalities. Together they presented some 167 projects with activities and outreach work from seven countries (Spain, Portugal, Mexico, Andorra, France, United States, and Colombia), scientific demonstrations carried out by teachers and students of primary, secondary and university, to the attending public.

There they presented some of the most surprising experiments, plays, and other shows to bring science closer to the youngest. The citizens visited the fair in the Izarra Center. The staging that took place at the Music Kiosk in San Pelayo Square, as well as the out-of-competition activities that delighted all those who approached the market square.

As a closing conference, 'Mathematics: passion and profession' was taught by Dr. Enrique Zuazua Distinguished Senior Researcher of DeustoTech (Bilbao - Basque Country - Spain) & Professor of Applied Mathematics of the Autonomous University of Madrid (Spain) about some of the discoveries and advances developed by some of the greatest figures of science and popularization such as Richard Feynman or Isaac Asimov.
The inaugural ceremony was presided over by the mayors of both cities: D. Carlos Totorika, Mayor of Ermua and D. Miguel de los Toyos, mayor of Eibar who were accompanied by Rosa Maria Ros, director of Ciencia en Acción and main NSC of Science on Stage Spain.

With this events Ciencia en Acción had a great impact on the population to increase public appreciation for science and scientific vocations, as well as involving the entire Spanish educational and scientific community as well as the disseminators. It also enhanced innovation in science education, preparing teacher educators.

Lately Science on Stage Georgia organised three workshops on 'Teaching Inquiry with Mysteries Incorporated' for Georgian science teachers together with the senior lecturer Dr. Peter Childs from the University of Limerick, Ireland. The two workshops with 50 teachers participating were conducted in Tbilisi, at SALiS Center of Ilia State University, and one workshop was done in Telavi with 30 science teachers. As you can tell by the statements of the participants the workshops were a big success: 'I got a lot of new ideas after this workshop. I’ll implement them in my practice' stated one teacher and another: 'I liked the workshop very much. These materials and approach used on the workshop give me the possibility to plan and conduct innovative lessons.'

Nino Saakashvili and Tamar Doborjginidze, who were part of the Georgian Science on Stage teacher delegation in Debrecen, are going to conduct a further workshop on 11 November 2017. They will share the experiences they got during the #SonS2017 festival in Hungary.